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Former national coach Cunha named principal of ActiveSG Athletics Club

SINGAPORE – Former athletics head coach Luis Felipe Cunha will lead the Government’s drive to get more young children running, jumping and throwing, with the Portuguese joining the ActiveSG Athletics Club as its principal.

Former national athletics head coach and three-time Olympian Luis Cunha had previously worked with athletes at the youth level. TODAY FILE PHOTO

Former national athletics head coach and three-time Olympian Luis Cunha had previously worked with athletes at the youth level. TODAY FILE PHOTO

SINGAPORE – Former athletics head coach Luis Felipe Cunha will lead the Government’s drive to get more young children running, jumping and throwing, with the Portuguese joining the ActiveSG Athletics Club as its principal.

Katrina Hall-Engle (seen below with C. Kunalan (left) and Glory Barnabas. Photo: Sport Singapore), who had previously coached at the Singapore Sports School and a running club, will head its Kids programme for children aged between six and 12 years old.

Boasting over three decades of experience in coaching, the duo will work alongside the club’s current coaches, former national relay coach Melvin Tan (sprints) and Steven Quek (distance), to help children learn the sport, and progress to the elite level.

They will also help to establish a coaching development framework to groom and mentor aspiring coaches with the aim of improving the grassroots coaching scene here.

“The two new appointments have over 33 years of experience in coaching Athletics and will bring to the table fun and fresh ideas to boost our current programmes,” said ActiveSG chief Lai Chin Kwang.

“Both of them have a strong background in working with children, making them ideal to plan and execute ActiveSG’s values-based programmes which aim to use sport to inculcate important values such as discipline, respect and teamwork into our youths.”

Cunha had previously worked with athletes at the youth level, and the former Lisbon University and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) lecturer was also responsible for planning and teaching long-term athlete development programmes.

A three-time Olympic sprinter, he was previously employed as head coach of sprints and relays at the Portuguese Athletics Federation, before he joined Singapore Athletics as head coach (sprints/hurdles) in November 2014. Cunha, who worked with local runners Calvin Kang and Dipna Lim-Prasad, left the association last month after his contract was not renewed.

“The main aim of the club is to give everyone the chance to get active and participate in sport as well as to build the club’s capability to produce athletes and improve their performances at competitions,” said Cunha.

“I’m happy to contribute to this cause with my team of coaches to bring the sport of athletics to the next level.”

The ActiveSG Athletics Club is one of four ActiveSG academies/clubs – the other sports are basketball, tennis and football – launched by Sport Singapore under its Vision 2030 masterplan to get more Singaporeans to play sports. More than 120 children are currently enrolled in the Athletics Club’s programmes at four centres around Singapore.

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